this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2024
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Privacy
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I figure it's best to assume that there is no privacy on the internet.
I've been in IT to close to 40 years and I don't say anything online that I wouldn't say in public.
Be paranoid in your estimation of how much privacy you have, but diligent in your efforts to get more of it for everyone.
Will people read this and stop using the internet or stop caring about privacy?
I'm not saying don't use the Internet. I'm saying be aware, be careful. Don't let companies sell your information. Use two factor authentication. Encrypt everything you can. Scan your system for malware. Don't open suspicious emails. Be proactive, but realize at some point someone could compromise your security.
That is not "no privacy" though. Absolute privacy is probably unachievable indeed, but you can be pretty high on its spectrum.
I think a big part of it comes down to what threats are there in theory and what threats are there actually. The problem is that the theoretical threats are possible, they're not unrealistic and that's why it doesn't feel good to not be protected against the theoretical threats but we maybe need to try and accept they are too unlikely to be active threats. Trying to protect from theoretical threats is kind of like trying to protect your house from having an airplane fall down from the sky into your house. Or maybe this is just my trying to cope.
And how do we know what threats are theoretical vs active threats? Just have to keep learning and learning, it takes a long time. Talking in privacy and security communities can help speed up the learning.
Yeah, I fully agree! Point was different though... How does it relate to your statement of "there is no privacy on the internet"? Such awareness might help gain said privacy in each area, from different threats.
We've had meetings spelling out to users what they should look for in a suspicious email. Then, once a week we would send out an email that was either legitimate or suspicious. We would ask them to look closely at the email and mark down on the questionnaire whether the email was suspicious or legitimate. A not insignificant number of people failed the test every week. Your average user just isn't equipped with the mindset they need to be safe on the internet.
That is a completely different issue from "not having privacy at all" though.
Cynicism is a self-fulfilling prophesy. If everything's bad then there's no reason to care, and if nobody cares then everything will be bad.
For things to get better, or not get worse, cynics depend on others to care about those things. To me that feels terribly like freeloading.
Just because someone chooses not to be a privacy advocate, I don't think that means it is universally accepted that they are "freeloading".
Usually the people who I see make these kinds of arguments are the ones that don't participate in normal society and live in a bubble, and pretend capitalism isn't necessary for most people to live their lives.